With the advent of many forms of recreational pursuits being transferred from the comparative uniformity of the street to more rugged and wilderness settings, appropriate design modifications are required to the corresponding recreational vehicle to be viable for use in such settings and to ensure safe and durable operation. For example, the familiar “street” bicycle has evolved into the more substantial “mountain” bike and the familiar “street” skateboard, which operates on the relatively smooth and rigid surface of a roadway, must undergo substantial alteration for proper operation on more rugged terrain.
The conventional street skateboard usually has fore and aft wheel pairs, which are mounted in laterally opposed pairs to the underside of the skateboard deck on trucks, or axle assemblies. The trucks consist of a base plate and an axle and wheel assembly, which is pivotally mounted on to the base plate. The wheels, which are generally mounted in fore and aft pairs, are of relatively small diameter and have a rotational axis that is substantially below the skateboard deck. The small diameter wheels provide only limited ground clearance and when mounted in fore and aft pairs are manoeuvred by twisting or pivoting the board about its longitudinal axis.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an in-line skateboard suitable for use over relatively rough and hilly terrain, having a single fore and aft pair of relatively large diameter wheels positioned near the fore and aft ends of the skateboard, each wheel in-line with the longitudinal axis of the board and where the laterally extending axis of rotation of each wheel is located above the skateboard deck.
It is a further object of this invention to permit independent vertical movement of the fore and aft wheels relative to the board deck, as may result during travel over rough terrain, without resulting in corresponding undamped vertical movement of the skateboard deck.